Traditional Tea Party Food

Get out your favorite linens, your nicest plates and tea pot, and the sugar and creamer. You’re ready to [tea] party!

CakeHere’s your opportunity to serve special things that most people don’t have often enough. They can be simple, from sponge cake to layer cake to bite-size madeleines and individual cheesecakes. Should you serve your “Death By Chocolate” cake or rich chocolate brownies? It’s a personal choice. We prefer to keep tea on the light-to-medium side, since, after all, dinner is in a few hours.

Cookies

Tea is a wonderful reason to get out your favorite cookie recipes: butter cookies, gingerbread or gingersnaps, linzer cookies, shortbread—the sky’s the limit.

Scones are a classic with afternoon tea. Iveta Scones are easy to make, moist and delicious. Try them with Curdelicious fruit curds. Both are NIBBLE Top Picks Of The Week. Photo by Claire Freierman | THE NIBBLE.

TartsFruit tarts and lemon tarts rule! You can make them quickly with tart shells and fruit curd.

TortesAlmond, chocolate and linzer tortes are popular and less rich than layer cakes.

Healthier Tea Party Food

Cholesterol-Free, Lower-Sugar
Cakes Bundt cakes, carrot cake, zucchini bread and other cakes made with a heart-healthy oil—not butter—and no frosting.

Angel Food Cake With Fruit Purée

This airy cakes is made from egg whites and has fewer calories. Many people enjoy it plain, but those who need embellishment can have a healthy fruit sauce. Sweeten the purée, as needed, with healthy agave syrup.

Healthy Tea Party Food

Fruit With Diet Yogurt DipCut up fruit like crudités and serve with a dip made of fat-free yogurt, no-cal sweetener and cinnamon. If you don’t want to use a noncaloric sweetener, use agave syrup. The glycemic index is 21 compared to sugar (65) honey (56) and maple syrup (58).

Baked ApplesBake apples with a bit of agave syrup—it’s very sweet, so a little goes a long way. Cinnamon and nutmeg provide wonderful seasoning.

Afternoon tea is an occasion to try new teas as well as new dessert recipes, like this gingerbread loaf. Photo by April Turner | Dreamstime.

Poached PearsDitto. Or, leave off the cinnamon and nutmeg, and serve the poached pears with a small scoop of fresh goat cheese, whipped and slightly sweetened.